The U.S. Postal Service may own the world’s largest electronic communications network. The challenge is finding ways to profit from it.

Finding commercial uses for the Postal Service’s communications infrastructure is part of a technology strategy Postmaster General William Henderson said he intends to put into operation before he leaves the top job at the Postal Service in May.

USPS has satellite communications capability at 10,000 post offices, and it has phone lines connected to 30,000 more. Its network includes some of the most sophisticated transmission devices in the world, Henderson said during a press conference Thursday.

The network has been upgraded to transmit video and audio signals as well as digital data, he said. At present, it is used as an internal communication system for the Postal Service, but it could be used as a commercial transmission network, he said.

With operating losses projected to reach $480 million this year, the Postal Service is looking for new ways to generate revenue. It is experimenting with several electronic services, such as electronic bill paying, certified e-mail and NetPost Mailing Online, a service that e-mails messages to a print shop near their destination, where they are printed and then delivered through the regular mail.

Henderson called the experiments "very interesting" because they are teaching the Postal Service about e-commerce, but he said it is uncertain whether they will prove profitable.

One optimistic economic development: The recent collapse of many Internet companies has slowed the shift from paper mail to e-mail and electronic funds transfer, Henderson said. In the short run, that is expected to slow the decline in first-class mail, which is the Postal Service’s most important source of revenue. Last fall, the Postal Service identified electronic communication as a serious threat to its future financial self-sufficiency. Since then, however, "the euphoria around the Internet has subsided somewhat" and been replaced by "a certain cynicism," leaving consumers more reluctant to accept or pay bills via the Internet, Henderson said.

Disenchantment with the World Wide Web has also caused advertisers’ spending to shift back from the Internet to advertising that is mailed, he said.